This invention relates to semi-automatic apparatus for inserting holder sticks into food articles such as wieners, or into other articles; which apparatus is of the type described in applicant's U.S. Pat. No. 3,691,608, issued Sept. 19, 1972, and applicant's U.S. Pat. No. 4,069,960 issued Jan. 24, 1978. More particularly, this invention relates to an improvement in apparatus of the type described in applicant's above mentioned patents.
In the present and prior forms of such apparatus, an accessory which is identified as a "stick holder" has been and is employed to grasp the distal ends of a group of holder sticks which have been driven into a group of wieners or other articles; and that stick holder is then used for transporting that group of assembled holder sticks and wieners for further processing or other handling. The stick holder is designed to be positioned between a stick feed box or hopper, and an article holder having chambers for retaining a plurality of wieners or other articles to enable the sticks to be inserted into these articles; and the stick holder is an elongated member having transverse passages through which the sticks pass prior to being clamped. Prior machines have not incorporated structure for locating and retaining the stick holder with the precision necessary to avoid occasional displacement of the stick holder from its operative position which displacement may result from the fact that the stick holder passages are not precisely aligned with the paths of the sticks which are ejected from the stick box.
A principal object of this invention therefore is to provide improved apparatus which obviates the above mentioned problem.
Another principal object of this invention is to provide improved apparatus which coacts with accessory stick holders, to locate and maintain the stick holders in the desired operative relation to the apparatus to minimize possible malfunction.
A further and more particular object of this invention is to provide improved apparatus and accessory stick holders having coating means for preventing rotational, front-to-rear, and lateral movement of the stick holders relative to the apparatus which movement may produce malfunctioning misalignment of the accessories relative to the apparatus.
These objects are accomplished in apparatus for inserting elongated sticks into articles, wherein the apparatus includes: an article holder having means for retaining a plurality of articles in spaced side-by-side relation; a stick box having a plurality of elongated stick feed grooves disposed in spaced, parallel side-by-side relation, in generally horizontal longitudinal alignment with the respective article retaining means of the article holder, and having means for supporting sticks overlying each feed groove for sequential feeding into each feed groove; means for pushing sticks disposed in the feed grooves longitudinally out of the grooves and partially into the article retaining means so that the articles are impaled thereon; and a stick holder comprising an elongated body removably positionable between the stick box and the article holder, the stick holder having a plurality of stick passage means disposed in spaced side-by-side relation for generally horizontal alignment with respective feed grooves of the stick box and with respective retaining means of the article holder. The stick holder has stick clamping means for clamping sticks in the passage means. The apparatus provides a support surface for the stick holder adjacent to the stick box. The improvement comprises: coacting means on the apparatus and on the stick holder for preventing rotation of the stick holder about a longitudinal axis; coating means on the apparatus and of the stick holder for limiting forward and rearward movement of the stick holder relative to the apparatus; and coacting means on the apparatus and on the stick holder for limiting lateral movement of the stick holder relative to the apparatus.
The novel features and the advantages of the invention, as well as additional objects thereof, will be understood more fully from the following description when read in connection with the accompanying drawings.